First Thoughts: HP iPaq 1910 Overview

Today I got my hands on the HP iPaq 1910, one of the two new iPaq devices from HP, and am able to put forth some initial thoughts on this very compact and sleek device. So far I have nothing but praise for this effort from HP, view this article to get the details.

The first surprise upon seeing the device in the store was how different this iPaq is in its form factor as compared to its brethren iPaq devices, the 3700, 3800, 3900 and now 5450 series. The 1910 is small, and I mean much smaller than any other iPaq device. The dimensions on this thing are length 4.46″, width 2.75″ and depth 0.5″ and it weighs in at 4.23 oz. That’s a very compact PDA, and very much so smaller and lighter that all other iPaq devices. In fact, that’s the lightest Pocket PC device on the market; the 1910 is more like a Palm in its form and weight factor. Iâ€™â€˜m a huge fan of light and compact design, so I was immediately won over by the iPaq 1910 and am continuing to discover more I like about it.

The other aspect of the 1910 that had me happy from the start was that I actually had to install the rechargeable battery in the device before I could turn it on. Some of you may think this sounds like a hassle, but not in my book. I know by doing this how easy it is to place a battery in and out of the device, a simple sliding off of the back cover, and how in the future I can buy extra batteries to carry with me for backup power supply. The concept of replaceable batteries is not very common in PDAs, and HP put some thought into this device by providing that feature.

The iPaq series is known for its excellent screens. The 1910 does not disappoint, in fact, the screen is absolutely amazing. The 240 x 320 16-bit (64,000 colors) Transreflective display is incredibly sharp and bright. I happened to get the Viewsonic V35 on the same evening as the iPaq 1910 and the screen on the 1910 was superior and far brighter than the Viewsonic V35’s screen.

Typically I don’t expect much from sound on a Pocket PC, I’ve been disappointed far too many times in the past to have any high expectations of a decent speaker on a PDA. Not quite so with this sporty little 1910. The initial Pocket PC 2002 chimes had me thinking, “wow, that sounds a lot more crisp than what I’m used to.” So I fired up the MP3 playing abilities of the 1910 (by the way, HP makes you install Windows Media 8.0 on the device from a CD, it is not pre-installed, but I had no issues installing this via ActiveSync) and was further amazed that a take from a favorite band, MatchBox 20, sounded great and not like sound from a tin can! But wait, there’s more, I then plugged in the stereo hea! dphones that came with the device (yes that’s right, a set of quality headphones included) and was even more pleased with the quality of sound through the device into the provided headphones.

There has been some concern expressed about the 200 MHz XScale processor used instead of what’s becoming the more standard 300 MHz â€“ 400 MHz processor for Pocket PCs. I have not had enough time with the device to truly test it’s performance, but honestly, it is still on par with the more expensive former iPaq devices and I had no problem whatsoever opening common applications with no lag time. I’d feel better if there were a 300 MHz processor inside, but in the end, the average user just won’t notice the difference between 200 MHz and 300 MHz. The memory for the 1910 sits at 64MB of RAM of which 48MB is accessible to the user, pretty standard fare in that regard. Memory expansion is available via Secu! reDigital or MultiMedia Cards.

I’ll have a full review up this weekend on the 1910, but for now I have to say I’m very happy with this device and it appears HP has put some real thought into the design of this new and different iPaq. I can initially recommend it over the ViewSonic V35 PDA, check out the specs and pricing for the 1910 here.